I am writing to express my concern regarding your stance on the Falun
Gong organ harvesting issue and the dismissal of Mr. Ngapo Jigme from
his position at Radio Free Asia. I have always appreciated your
political stance towards the Chinese Communist Party. However, I feel
morally obligated to share my views with you on these two particular
issues.

First of all, I fully support the right of the Falun Gong followers
to practice their religion, express their political views, and strongly
condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal persecutions against them.
However, after more than a decade of close observations, I have found
that the Falun Gong is problematic in many instances, including on the
issue of organ harvesting.

Before 2000, Falun Gong had never talked about organ harvesting, even
though China had begun to harvest organs from prisoners in the early
1980s. During Falun Gong’s booming years in 1990s in China, it enjoyed
the support and cooperation of the Chinese government. In fact, its
founder, Mr. Hongzhi Li, had received an award from China’s State
Security Department. Even in the early 2000s, Falun Gong had seldom
mentioned the issue of organ harvesting because they had only opposed
then Chinese Communist Party’s General Secretary, Zemin Jiang, but not
the Chinese Communist Party itself.

Things took a dramatic turn in 2006, when the Falun Gong claimed that
approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been held at a medical
hospital at Sujiatun, Liaoning Province and that 4,000 of them had
their organs harvested. However, even now, the Falun Gong has never been
able to come up with solid evidence to vindicate their claims. No
medical doctor or family member of the victims supposedly involved in
the Sujiatun organ harvesting has come forward to substantiate the
claims. While there is no doubt that the Chinese government has
consistently engaged in illegal and immoral organ harvesting from
prisoners, the evidence presented by the Falun Gong is far from
convincing. I once pointed this out in a confidential letter to you and
your colleagues in Congress, but to my shock, one of your assistants
divulged the contents of this confidential letter to the Falun Gong.

I was surprised to learn that you had openly criticized the Central
Tibetan Administration and Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay due to their
alleged involvement in the dismissal of Mr Ngapo Jigme from Radio Free
Asia. It is true that Mr. Ngapo Jigme has had a complicated social and
political background. Through my interactions with him for more than a
dozen years, I have become fully aware of his “murky” relationship with
the Chinese government. I also understand that because of this, the
personnel at the Central Tibetan Administration and the International
Campaign for Tibet as well as the honorable Dalai Lama himself have
never accepted interviews by Radio Free Asia. I believe that the
management at Radio Free Asia must have solid evidence to force him out.
For the reasons stated above, it does not seem appropriate to lodge a
public complaint against the Central Tibetan Administration.

This letter has been written out of my deep respect towards your
persistent efforts to confront the Chinese dictatorship. I am personally
appreciative of the enormous support that you have given to the Laogai
Research Foundation and myself. Given the importance of your positions
on these issues, I feel obligated to share my opinions with you. I hope
that my perspectives would be helpful for you to form a more balanced
view on these important issues. It is also my wish that when you form an
opinion or take action in this regard, you would heed outside advice,
on top of the advice offered by your assistants or staff members.

I would be happy to further discuss the aforementioned issues and
concerns with you, and would be available to meet you at your
convenience. Meanwhile, you may reach me through email at exchange2060@gmail.com or call me at 202-408-8300 ext. 100.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Harry Wu

Founder and Executive Director
Laogai Research Foundation

CC:
1. The Honorable President of the United States
2. The Honorable President of Senate
3. The Honorable Speaker of House of Representative
4. Respected Members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
5. The Honorable Secretary of State

Originally published at http://www.laogai.org/human-rights-news/harry-wu-writes-us-congressman-dana-rohrabacher-regarding-tibet-and-organ